Yellowstone!

Ok, so we headed out of tensleep and headed straight for Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park. Our plan was to go into the park the first day and check out the backcountry camping situation and take a look around, then we were going to go back to Cody and find a kennel for Rizo for a few days and head back into the park.

The best laid plans.

Well the guy at the backcountry office recommended that we drive around the park before deciding where we would like to hike. We spent the first day checking out the geyser area. Soooo amazing. It is so hard to describe the steaming landscape. Every where you look the ground is just steaming up! We arrived at Old Faithful just in time to see the eruption ending, so we decided to stroll around for a while to see it in its full glory. While waiting, we were treated to an eruption of the Grand Geyser which was actually way bigger and better than Old Faithful--and rather than 90 minute intervals, it only goes off at 12 hour intervals. We were pretty lucky!

We also did a little bike ride and a small hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Wow! It looked like a giant blue eyeball with orange tears. This was one instance that we were happy to have the Lonely Planet that we picked up at a used bookstore in Moab. The author advised us not to go to the pull out for the Grand Prismatic Spring, but rather to take this little side trip. It was so worth it. Probably the most beautiful thing we'd seen all day.

So we made our way back to Hayden Valley where we were told many tourists had seen wolves and bears. We did manage to see some wolf pups--waaaayyy far in the distance. Also that day, we'd seen lots of bison, elk, deer, a coyote, bald eagle, ospreys, and some very greedy ravens!

We left the park late and tried to find a campsite in the rain and dark. Uggh. Not so fun. The distances in Yellowstone are also not so fun. On the way we decided that we really needed to get up to Glacier National Park fast if we hoped to drive the Road to the Sun (or whatever its called). We made the split second decision to skip out on backcountry camping in Yellowstone for the time being and spend another day exploring the park before high tailing up to northern Montana and Glacier NP. So we finally found a campsite and went to bed without our supper :(. We made a plan to awake before dawn with the hopes of seeing more wildlife.

We made our way back into the park on Wednesday and found it covered in a dense fog. Not so good for viewing wildlife. Luckily, however, we happened upon some tourists parked precariously where there was no pullout. Knowing that this meant something good, we quickly pulled over and were pleased to see mama Grizzly Bear and one older cub and one --probably this year's cub! Right by the road! How adorable! We drove on hoping to find some wolves. Unfortunately, the fog in Hayden was too thick for any more viewing, so after a brief stop to view the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the lower Yellowstone Falls--quite spectacular, we made our way to the famous Lamar Valley.

Aside from wildlife, we were also on a mission to find a campsite inside the park. We wanted one near Lamar Valley so we could wake up early and see more wildlife, but we were disappointed to find that all of the campsites were full already. Bummer. This was quite frustrating for us. Maybe planning isn't so bad after all? Anyway, we were lucky enough to come across a big group of people with some wolf biologists who directed us and our binos toward 4 wolf pups (although I only saw 2). The pups were howling at one point which was really cool. While we were there, wolf daddy came strolling in and took the pups up the ridgeline. How thrilling! A little while later, someone pointed out another Grizzly Bear (in the same valley) strolling toward us. Wow! Finally, mama wolf came trotting over to meet the rest, got put off by some fisherman (we think), and turned around and went back the other way. This was disappointing, but what happened next was almost as fun as watching the wolves. So she crossed back across the road in front of some lucky tourists who decided that wasn't good enough. They along with this professional photographer guy (who had formerly been with our group) ran after mama wolf up the slope. Oh man did this make the wolf biologist with us MAD! He went tearing off in his truck after the suckers. Later on as we were driving by, we saw he had called the Park Enforcement Rangers to come and give them tickets. Ha ha!

Anyway, frustrated by not finding a single campsite, we decided to hit Mammoth Terraces and head out of the park. Mammoth Terraces were a bit disappointing after the Old Faithful area, but there were still some cool sites (most of the springs were dry--we're not sure if it was the season, or just a dry spell).

Whew. I'm sure I missed a bunch, but it was a busy two days! We enjoyed Yellowstone, but didn't really enjoy the camping situation and the distances between things were kind of a drag (not to mention the distance from the towns to the park attractions). We will certainly go back and try to get in some backcountry travel at some point.

Ok, off to bed!

P.S. Isaac just reminded me that we also saw some big horn sheep today--no moose though :(